Japanese Garden

Name/Title

Japanese Garden

Entry/Object ID

2025.1.1

Description

20th-c. oil-on-linen painting of a Japanese-style house and garden.

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Walter Edmonds

Role

Artist

Date made

circa 1970 - circa 1989

Time Period

20th Century

Interpretative Labels

Label

Philadelphia-based artist Walter Edmonds devoted himself to art and the surrounding community. Edmonds is known for painting murals around the city, most famously, at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. With the city often serving as a backdrop, his work periodically highlighted Philadelphia-related subject matter. In Japanese Garden, adjacent to a lattice fence, Edmonds depicts a lush garden in foliage with two flowing trees in the center. In the background, a traditional Japanese house peeks through the vegetation. Considering Philadelphia was repeatedly the subject of his paintings and the striking resemblance of the architectural features, this painting may depict the house and garden at the Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center in Fairmount Park. The house’s roof, eave, and gable resemble Shofuso and its Hinoki (Japanese cypress) bark roof. Additionally, the lattice fence and the house’s translucent sliding door mirror Shofuso’s bamboo fence and Shoji (a Japanese wood-framed paper-covered panel).

Label Type

Credit Line

Label

Label written by Joshua Wilson, ‘26

Label Type

Credit Line

Label

Gift of Susanna Gold, in memory of Bill Pinder